Well Fuck

So I received information that I finished 2nd in Top Gun standings. The top 2 players and top woman make the Top Gun tournament but you have to play in a regular APA league to participate, not just the masters league. But as it turns out the guy who got 1st and the top woman are in the same boat as me so the league operator is trying to see if we can participate in the tournament. The problem is that the tournament is this Saturday and I'm going to the Rockies game and the Broncos game on Saturday and Sunday so I can't play regardless. I would have loved to play in a tournament with such a strong field as this tournament will surely possess. I guess I can take solace in the fact that I qualified with my play from this session but I'm a little sad that I'll be unable to participate.

I'm not real sure why you have to play in a regular APA league to qualify for the Top Gun tournament, something about it's funded by the "23" league. Well why the fuck do I pay $10 per week and $10 per year? Where does this money go? I'm familiar with the APA and know that they're ENTIRELY about the "23" league. I used to play in it and the total skill level cannot exceed 23 points. I'm registered as a 5 (that's what I was when I quit APA about 5-6 years ago) and our team consisted of four people with skill level 5's and one as a 3. So we were at the maximum points allowed and when one of the guys skill level went up to 6 we decided to change leagues so our team could remain intact. APA is a business and are only interested in making money (I don't blame them for that) but they don't promote people to get better, only to diverse and enter with new teams and new people, making them more money. So I changed to BCA league which was handicapped in a different way, your teams total skill levels were added up and you spotted your opponents according to that. After playing that for a while I switched to the BCA masters league which is not handicapped at all. It counts games won only and whichever team wins the most games is the winner. I prefer this system much more than APA because it promotes good play whereas APA promotes people to sandbag, as in not playing to full strength because your skill level might go up and put you and your team in jeopardy of total points being too high. APA is a great league for beginners but people who take getting better seriously it's not in their best interest. Our team made the playoffs (no clue how, we were like 7th or 8th out of 11 teams) so we have another match tomorrow so I'll let you know how that goes.

My game is getting better but very slowly, it's difficult when you reach a certain level of play to get better. Not to say that I'm so good I can't get better, because that's not at all what I mean. I "know" only what I've learned and must continue to find new avenues of information and ways to improve. I'm very good at what I know and am getting better at what I'm trying to introduce into my game, ie. preshot routine. But every pool player hits a wall or a plateau and your game can level off and your not getting any better. I need to reread (or probably finish reading) Pleasures of Small Motions as it goes into many aspects of the game but mostly the mental side. Learning to take every pocketed ball as a small victory and keep you in the moment instead of getting ahead of yourself and miss a shot because you're not focused on this "easy" shot. I'm getting better at this but it is probably my biggest downfall. Most of the shots I miss aren't difficult shots, they're fairly simple shots that I'm taking for granted because I'm thinking about the difficult shot of the rack or position to a certain ball. I'm sure this is about as interesting as watching grass grow to most of you but it's fascinating to me. I read this simple, yet so very true line somewhere:
"Don't shoot in the thinking position & Don't think in the shooting position." This could not be more correct, if you break this rule you are sure to miss.